Snack-type food products which are rolled along their longitudinal axis are consumed by partially unrolling a continuous rolled-up tape to a desired length and then breaking off or tearing off a piece of the food item from the rest of the roll for consumption. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,175 to Ream et al discloses chewing gum in the form of a rolled-up tape allowing the consumer the chance to break off the desired sized piece to chew, saving the rest for later. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,205,106, 5,284,667, 5,455,053, 5,516,542 and 5,723,163 to Zimmerman et al. disclose rolled food items made from a dehydrated fruit puree product strip supported on a support material.
However, tearing or breaking off a piece of the food for consumption is difficult for young children and often results in destruction of the food item removed from the roll and destruction of a portion of the remaining food roll. In addition, difficulty encountered in separating the food often leads to excess or complete unraveling, or unrolling of the food roll. In the hands of young children, excessive unraveling may cause portions of the roll to touch the ground leading to wasted products. In addition, young children often separate or break off a longer piece of product than they can consume, leading to product waste.
Perforation of rolled paper products such as paper towels or bathroom tissue for separation of pieces into fixed lengths is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,781 to McNeil. Embossing apparatuses, such as embossing rollers, in the paper-making and tissue arts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,390 to Salman et al. However, instruments used to segment paper products comprise sharp blades which do not avoid “cold flow” problems encountered in cutting food items. Also, embossing in the paper art increases paper thickness by creating contour in the paper sheet while maintaining its integrity and so would not be used to create a “pop out” or removable design which might compromise the integrity of a self-supporting sheet or film.
Many foods, such as dehydrated fruit puree, formed into thin strips that require a support material such as waxed paper, do not lend themselves to forming rolled food items wherein the food is segmented. Particularly in the case of dehydrated fruit purees which are often tacky, adjacent segments in a strip of dried puree flow together during or after processing so that either the segment no longer exists, or is no longer visible, or any attempt to break apart a segment so deforms the food item that the aesthetic appeal and the intended play value of the food item or the segment that is broken off of it substantially deteriorate.
Cooling during the processing of a rolled strip of a dehydrated fruit puree to render it less tacky, for example to about room temperature, can render the puree less flowable during processing so that it will at least temporarily form segments of a strip of food when packaged. However, the segments of the cooled strip may still tend to flow back together either during the roll-up of the strip or in the package. Moreover, if the strip of food is made too cold, it cannot be rolled-up without breakage because it loses its flexibility. Thus, “cold flow” problems cannot be solved by simply cooling the dehydrated fruit puree during processing.
Likewise, when dehydrated fruit purees used to make strips of food are too tacky, they cannot be embossed or imprinted so that the designs formed by embossing or imprinting remain on the strip of food. In embossing or imprinting, as in segmenting, cooling the fruit puree may allow embossing or imprinting yet may not prevent cold flow during roll-up or in the package so that the so-formed bosses or imprints are no longer recognizable.
In accordance with the present invention, a segmented rolled food item, and a method and an apparatus for making the same, permit the easy and discrete removal of one or more segments of food and allow the consumer, especially young children, to break off the desired size of one or more pieces to play with or to eat while saving the rest for later, thus creating a novelty form of merchandising for the food. The separation of segments into predetermined or fixed lengths may be achieved by youngsters without substantial, or no distortion of the separated pieces or the remaining roll. Additionally, the rolled food item may be repeatedly unrolled and re-rolled without undesired separating of the food segments.